Not Listening to both Parents

Question
Recently our dog Emmit (11month) has forgotten how to listen.  When dad goes to work he is an angel and listens very well. When he comes home Emmit will no longer listen to myself or my husband. And he gets very antsy and devious. Just this morning he jumped on the cat. And after that when my husband was taking him outside he ran away and almost got hit by a car. He had never listened to my husband the way he listens to me. He is also a big chew-er. Not all the time but anytime we go anywhere even for 10 minutes without putting him in his kennel, he chews somthing of ours. We don't like having to put him in the kennel everytime we leave but we cannot trust him not to chew somthing. And he's not left alone often or even for very long and everytime we do leave him alone he goes for a walk when we do get home. We've tried giving him treats such as rawhides, and leaving him out but he chewed on a pair of slippers after finishing the rawhide. We dont know what to try, we've tried ignoring him and my husband rienforces me when I make commands as I do with him. But its just not working. Please help us. We don't know what to do.

Answer
Yep, Emmit has begun adolescence, which is not all that different from human teen behavior!

First, there is nothing wrong with crating a puppy (and yes, Emmit is still a puppy) when you leave the house and are not able to watch him. Every time he 'gets away with' chewing on something he shouldn't, while you're not there to tell him otherwise, he learns that it's okay. Putting him in his crate protects your things, and protects HIM. For example, say he found a tasty pair of slippers to chew on, and ended up chewing off and swallowing a chunk of them. That chunk could potentially cause a bowel obstruction, which can be deadly. The same thing goes for socks, garbage, etc. It's far better to keep him in a crate during the day, where he is safe, than to risk him hurting himself while you're gone. He will grow up eventually, and you can start giving him more and more freedom, but for now, the crate is the best place for him during the day.

Also, rawhides can be very dangerous. I do not recommend rawhides at all, but if you must give him one, do it only when you are able to supervise him. When rawhide gets wet, it swells up a LOT. Again, if he were to bite off a large piece and swallow it, it could swell up in his stomach or intestines and cause a blockage that would most likely have to be surgically removed. Additionally, rawhides are processed with all kinds of nasty chemicals, such as chlorine and formaldehyde. It's better if you can give him a nice raw soup bone, stuffed Kong, or Nylabone to keep him occupied.


When he goes outside, he should be on a leash. That will prevent him from being able to run off.

I would strongly encourage you (and your husband) to do some basic obedience training with him. If you can, find a trainer that will come to your house and work with you one on one, and then when he knows the basics, you can enroll in a group class. If there are no trainers that will come to you, see if you can find one close by that does private, or semi-private (2-3 people vs. a big class), lessons. Stay away from the classes offered in pet stores. Not only is the pet store much too distracting, but the instructors usually do not have a lot of experience.